Piety in the late Middle Ages encouraged the believer's intense emotional empathy with the suffering of Christ. Here, stone is transformed into flesh by the actual wood thorns piercing the forehead. The capacity for sculptural naturalism developed in Burgundy by Claus Sluter (ca. 1360-before 1406) and Nikolaus Gerhaert von Leiden (active 1460-73?) endows this noble face with an uncanny intensity. The head was part of a devotional group, either a Pietà or an Entombment of Christ.